Wrap up: The third debate; Update: Insta-polls coming in

posted at 11:02 pm on October 22, 2012 by Allahpundit

The nearly universal consensus on Twitter is that Romney won by holding his own, which is all a challenger needs to do in a foreign-policy debate. After watching him talk about international affairs for 90 minutes, does he seem like a guy you’d trust with the button? If yes, then mission accomplished.

Romney will keep moving forward after tonight. Obama was solid, but Romney tone perfect. What he needed.

Doesn’t matter who won the battle, says Ron Fournier. What matters is who won the war:

Mitt Romney wins. That’s not to say he won Monday night’s debate or the presidential campaign, but it’s safe to say he won an important chapter: The debate season…

There are ample reasons for both Obama and Romney to feel optimistic about their chances Nov. 6. But through his own steady performances and a spectacular first-debate failure by the incumbent, Romney has cleared an important hurdle: A near-decisive number of Americans believe that he is a viable alternative to Obama, an incumbent saddled with a weak economy and a pessimistic national mood.

Another point made more than once in the national tweet scrum tonight was that it sometimes felt like Romney was the incumbent and Obama the angry, occasionally snide challenger. That’s a byproduct, I’m sure, of Team Mitt rehearsing very carefully to capture the sort of tone that Murphy mentioned above. Romney wanted to show the audience not just that he understands Afghanistan, Syria, and Iran, but that he’s unflappable even in a tense situation. Obama wasn’t facing that test so he could afford to be more aggressive, if only to impress his base. Because he was playing offense, I’ll bet that he wins the insta-polls. But that won’t matter; the bottom line is that Romney’s still on track. Stand by for updates.

Update: To see what I mean by snide, here’s O telling Romney that the 1980s called and asked for their foreign policy back. Which is an old enough gag that I think it actually does date to the 1980s.

Soledad O’Brien was just interviewing the CNN undecided voter focus group. She asked them (quoting from memory): “How many of you changed your mind based upon tonight’s debate.” A whole bunch of hands went up. But — and this is not a joke — O’Brien refused to ask them who they’d would vote for because voting is a “private matter.”

I’m not making this up.

Update: Hearing on Twitter that CNN’s insta-poll has Obama winning 48/40. O won the insta-poll after the second debate by a nearly identical margin, and yet the Mitt-mentum continued. Meanwhile, for what it’s worth, Mark Halperin calls it a flat tie.

Update: A more significant poll result, maybe:

More of CNN post debate Poll: Can Obama handle job of Cmdr. in Chief? Yes: 63%. Can Romney? Yes: 60%. A draw on that Q.

Blowback

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he’s . . . only C in C during wartime, and can only order the military to do anything if Congress first authorizes it.

Dante on October 23, 2012 at 8:33 AM

This is pure ignorance on display. The President is Commander in Chief of the US Military from the second he assumes the office until the second to leaves the office. Furthermore, he can order the military to do always everything without Congressional authorization. Budgeting and issues with respect to war powers can be follow-up items with Congress.

Obama’s win over McCain was a mixed blessing in that like a bad day fishing, it keeps the riff-raff crowdsfrom coming back when the fishing is good.

They left has been planning the big takeover moves for along time, so they and their media friends all dropped pretense and came out of the closet in droves for the magic messiah of the left and “blitzkrieg-ed” their way across America while handing out “dirty candy” in every seductive moral corruption possible; from Obamacare, free lunches,eco-energy-scams, paid sloth, stealing companies for their union comrades, lying and distorting truth all the way to the great Fluke condom and lust convention celebration while blasphemously booing God Himself.

They can’t ever crawl back and pretend they are not what they are–purveyors of evil.
America, has to decide now whether or not to take the dirty old man’s candy and walk off into the dark woods with him or run back to home.

This is pure ignorance on display. The President is Commander in Chief of the US Military from the second he assumes the office until the second to leaves the office. Furthermore, he can order the military to do always everything without Congressional authorization. Budgeting and issues with respect to war powers can be follow-up items with Congress.

If he’s going to talk like a moron, he deserves to be talked to as though is a moron.

Glad you brought that up, though — the only decent smackdown of the night by either side.

“We have fewer horses and bayonets…”

urban elitist on October 23, 2012 at 8:29 AM

Because ships are still important, I see you skipped over the humanitarian aspect of our fleet…nuclear subs is still one of our most effective counter deterrants…and it all ads up to a strong military presence means exactly that, presence…and nothing in the Med. is equal to a fleet of ships, nothing in the Pacific like a fleet of ships, it’s a presence that is intimidating and supportive.

Your video games that you play, may be effective in war, but not as a deterrent…

But you show you colors by saying he talked like a moron, you are a moron to be so moronic…
Only a fools would think that Mitt, Biden, Obama, Paul, any of the candidates are “moron’s”…good grief, do you have to breath in a bag to contain your hyperventilation??

Romney should’ve said we had a drone giving us a live feed of the battle where our ambassador was killed. Romney should’ve asked obama if he saw it, if not why not? Romney should’ve said we didn’t we send help, we were in Libya to help, why did we leave a man behind?

Me: I don’t like Romney playing prevent defense. Don’t be afraid to win, I’m still very upset Mitt let that piece of trash off the hook!

Further, he’s only your Commander in Chief if you are active-duty military, and only C in C during wartime, and can only order the military to do anything if Congress first authorizes it.

Dante on October 23, 2012 at 8:33 AM

If your claim was true, then this would not have been necessary…….

The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding a presidential veto.

Beck is amazed that Romney let Libya slide but he did say that most people only vote on the economy, not war.

I still think it was a huge mistake to give obama a pass on that and on Netanyahu.

LevinFan on October 23, 2012 at 9:27 AM

Beck has no idea about debating…Libya was a land mine, Obama was prepped, ready with a stock counter attack and Mitt would have been drawn into details that would have clouded his more important points.
The economy is what is driving us down as a nation…that was driven home, and by all accounts was extremely effective, the type that as days pass, people forget about the little details of who said or did what, but they don’t forget 23 million out of work, the 10% unemployment.

Notice Mitt said 10% unemployment twice, and Obama was smart enough not to take the bait and say it was less than 8%?

They both knew each was setting traps, and each avoided those “setups”.

Mitt stuck to the “foreign policy isn’t horrible but could be better” and the “we are weaker because we are domestically weaker”, which is an absolute no one could argue.

The Obama supporter GumbyandPokey pretends to be a conservative on here because he thinks that his pro-Obama spam will be more persuasive if people think it is coming from a conservative. GumbyandPokey actually thinks you guys are stupid enough to fall for it. He has admitted this, yet still often pretends to be a conservative in his comments here. GumbyandPokey is trying to demoralize Republican voters and convince them not to vote.
He did the exact same thing with the Scott Walker recall election back in the spring.

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? Take a look at this:

Walker is a goner…
“A new Rasmussen poll finds that Republican Wisconsin Scott Walker is in trouble of being recalled June 5, with a majority, 52 percent, saying they will vote him
Worse for Walker: 53 percent disapprove of his job as governor with a whopping 46 percent saying they “strongly disapprove” of Walker. Majorities of both men and women now support his recall.”
gumbyandpokey on April 2, 2012 at 7:10 PM

The main takeaway is that as Executive, there can be no foreign policy hiccups and continuity (at least in the short-term) is to be preserved. Gov. Romney’s goal was to take the last of the scare tactics away from his opponents, look competent and professional, and not be flustered by petty attacks and to actually point out they are petty. This last area of worry for a President was neutralized and Gov. Romney deftly took out the two major Presidential hats from Obama: the Head of State and CinC hats. By underplaying his position tonight, not feeding red meat to the base, and by re-assuring on foreign policy, the ‘Romney as warmonger’ cards are shredded.

If Gov. Romney left ‘attack points’ that Obama put out on the table, he also left out swaths of foreign policy on how to work with South/Latin America, other venues for curbing Iran and why draw-down agreements must be orderly and leave flexibility in them. You can’t parade around saying ‘we left Iraq’ and ‘we are leaving Afghanistan’ without also explaining why we are in S. Korea and Germany. Pressing the small business case for trade agreements is something the multi-culti Left should love, as it puts small US firms in close contact with small firms in different Nations to work together: you can’t attack Gov. Romney on this without showing the bankruptcy of multiculturalism. These areas seem to have caught President Obama flat-footed in areas where the President has the most oversight and control… yet there they stood making him look out of touch and unable to deal with the idea that there are other ways to go after problems than just sanctions alone and just military action alone. That lovely area of the pre-20th century may yet come back to show us just how out of touch the 20th century was and that we must learn not to forget the tools of the Nation State left to rust for over a century.

Americans do not like hard, sharp breaks in foreign policy, but smooth ones that make a lick of sense over a few years. When President Obama attacked Gov. Romney he was not pressing for why his own foreign policy was better and what its successes are as a policy. Whenever he was drawn back to domestic policy, it became a tired sounding quagmire of old ideas he ran on in 2008 and couldn’t get done in 4 years. That is not making a case for a strong foreign policy… kudos to Gov. Romney to keep on drawing the discussion back to domestic policy where the problems of this Administration are most glaring and even harder to defend than its foreign policy because Americans get to experience it day in and day out.

If you wanted meat and lots of it, you didn’t like last night.

If you enjoyed watching an experienced executive point out how unexecutive his opponent looked, then you had a great time at the President’s expense. Apparently one of the men was closing a deal… the other was starting to realize that he had been dealt with and couldn’t figure out how you can ‘win’ the debates and yet lose the job interviewing process.

We all know, we all laugh, like dante, who just spews attacks, but never has anything to really add to the argument, he just challenges.

These guys come and go, once we get tired of their idiocy, we start to ignore them, they get frustrated and cross the line trying to get attention…

It’s fun once in awhile to jerk their chains…but it gets tiresome after a time because they add nothing, they are what I call “thought suckers”…just reactionist, with no real insight or any input of value.

In this additional golden oldie from the past spring we once again find the Obama supporter GumbyandPokey pretending to be a conservative, while trying to persuade Republican voters that they should just throw in the towel and stop fighting:

I’m in Wisconsin and he will lose to Tom Barrett… … Walker is going to lose. I was just at a recent Walker fundraiser and many supporters are literally begging him to actually campaign with some fire and passion, but he wants to win or lose being the “nice guy.” There’s just nothing you can do when the candidate refuses to return fire and is literally a punching bag day after day after day after day.
It’s incredibly frustrating here and things are only going to get worse. And for some reason, Obama is just loved here, and I can’t figure out why. Romney shouldn’t spend one cent since WI is not in play.
The best case scenario is that Gov Walker wins by the skin of his teeth like Prosser did against Kloppenberg.
gumbyandpokey on May 2, 2012 at 10:26 PM

Today we find GumbyandPokey trying to convince Republican voters to stop supporting Romney. I wonder how GumbyandPokey will occupy his time after Obama loses.

I am surprised that HotAir puts up with dishonest, spamming liberal trolls like GumbyandPokey. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he is eventually banned for his frequently off-topic, disruptive spam.

The President is Commander in Chief of the military during both times of declared war and otherwise. He is CINC during his entire time in office.

Additionally, the President can order the military to do almost anything without Congressional approval. Again, Congressional budgeting and declarations can be done as follow-up (after the orders are given).

Here’s the pure ignorance that you uttered:

he’s . . . only C in C during wartime, and can only order the military to do anything if Congress first authorizes it.

Apparently one of the men was closing a deal… the other was starting to realize that he had been dealt with and couldn’t figure out how you can ‘win’ the debates and yet lose the job interviewing process.

Obama was very good and Romney was very bad, inexplicably bad. He must think he’s got it won, because to be that deferential and timid made no sense.

This is why many Conservatives like myself didn’t support the guy. He was relentless in attacking his opponents in the primary, but conceded this debate to Obama.

gumbyandpokey on October 23, 2012 at 9:22 AM

You obviously didn’t understand the objectives of either party last night…

Obama’s job: Make Romney out to be a warmonger. Fail.

Romney’s job: Pass the Commander-in-Chief test, avoid coming off as Shrub II, and demonstrate a command of the topics. He succeeded. Further, his game plan through Obama off of his and, in the end, the President came off looking like the challenger and diminished himself, as Chuck Todd and John King said.

There is as much truth in this statement as the left saying Obamacare will lower health insurance costs.
Or that there were no taxpayer losses from GM.
Or that taxpayer investments in solar & wind are prudent & capital cronyism? What’s that?
Or that the left is protecting the middle class.
Or everything they’re trying to spin on Benghazi is honest.
Or that Obama supports Israel.

I didn’t object. I asked a poster why it matters to him that the president visit Israel. I couldn’t care less if a president visits another nation or not. That’s not exactly his job.

Dante on October 23, 2012 at 9:30 AM

Oh my…good grief…you don’t understand the War Powers Act, now you don’t understand the roll of a modern President….

HAHAHAHHAHA!! you crack me up, it’s so amusing to watch you flail about trying to be “controversial”, and instead we just shake our head at your absolute lack of knowledge and basic, and I mean basic, understanding of most anything political…

Beck has no idea about debating…Libya was a land mine, Obama was prepped, ready with a stock counter attack and Mitt would have been drawn into details that would have clouded his more important points.
The economy is what is driving us down as a nation…that was driven home, and by all accounts was extremely effective, the type that as days pass, people forget about the little details of who said or did what, but they don’t forget 23 million out of work, the 10% unemployment.

Notice Mitt said 10% unemployment twice, and Obama was smart enough not to take the bait and say it was less than 8%?

They both knew each was setting traps, and each avoided those “setups”.

Mitt stuck to the “foreign policy isn’t horrible but could be better” and the “we are weaker because we are domestically weaker”, which is an absolute no one could argue.

right2bright on October 23, 2012 at 9:35 AM

This is exactly why Mitt was not my guy in the primary.

I prefer conservatives who have a pair.

No reason Romney couldn’t have asked why there was no security detail, especially after the ambassador asked for help.

Do these wishy washy independent not care about leaving Americans behind to die?

No reason Romney couldn’t have mentioned that the obama admin. tried to have google sensor the video. Don’t the indy weaklings pressure their youtube rights?

Lost opportunity.

Like Beck said, we wanted the Giants game, not the slow grind it out Bears game.

Romney didn’t need to “win” last night, he just let Obama be Obama, and I think as the day pass, like the last debate that Obama “won”, it will show that Mitt is the one who gained the most.

They both do not need to win their supporters over (well maybe Obama does a little), they need to sway the ones who are not committed, and what that means, the ones who do not know Mitt.

Mitt doesn’t even to win all of the, or the majority, he’s ahead in the polls, all he needs to do is break even, but he did more than that.

The same ones on here who said he lost the last debate, have no answer as to why, after several polls, it is shown Mitt actually won the debate with the voters…and now they will say Mitt lost again, and again, after days, it will show that Obama came across as an angry child…

The election is all but over, NC they have given up on, they are hanging their hat on Ohio, but that is turning PA is turning, WI is in play for the first time since 1984…Obama had his last shot last night, and Mitt did exactly what he had to do…he won the voters, but lost the journalists…

One thing we can infer from both the strategies and the demeanors adopted by Romney and Obama last might: the candidates’ pollsters are telling them the same thing. Romney is winning.

Obama was like a fighter who comes out for the last round having been told by his corner, “You can’t win on points. You have to go for a knockout.” Romney was like a fighter who has been told, “You’re winning the fight. Just don’t walk into a lucky punch.”

Until it was brought up in the debate last week, the press wasn’t even covering it. They are now, aren’t they? Now the public can decide if the guy who withheld requested security for his own envoy in the world’s hot spot is the guy they trust.

The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding a presidential veto.

Like Beck said, we wanted the Giants game, not the slow grind it out Bears game.

LevinFan on October 23, 2012 at 9:54 AM

You don’t get it…Obama had an answer, Beck has the advantage of no one challenging him…the debate would have got down to details and details bore and confuse the listener.

It’s not about “huevos”, it’s being smart and picking your battles.
You listen to Beck, so I can only imagine how he has stirred up the pot, like MSNBC does to the libs…you don’t see that Mitt would have lost points, Obama had probably a dozen quips, along with “you have not sent men in to battle, you have not had to make battle plans, you have not sat in on security meetings with the Joint Chief of Staffs, you have taken over company’s, made a lot of money, but you haven’t ever had to put a soldiers life on the line, it’s different than a board room where they serve you lunch and you are not dealing with the grieving soldiers family”…Mitt kept him from allowing Obama to highlight his 4 years of experience, with Mitt’s no experience dealing with war/battle decisions…it was bad enough of the few minutes of “Bin Laden” rehashing…

Sorry, but Beck is just a blow hard, he doesn’t understand the dynamics of a debate like this, he just thinks you throw out challenges and the other side doesn’t have an answer…

The prep is as much what not to say, as to what to say…and Mitt did an incredible job not allowing Obama any chance of creating distance between Mitt and Obama…and in the last debate you don’t want to stampede (that happened the first debate), you want to bring in the stray sheep.

Beck’s a fool…straight out fool that knows how to jerk some conservatives chain…no different from Chris Mattews or Rachel with their liberal viewers…

Who said it last night, it’s like a baseball game where a team scored 6 runs the first inning, than the last two innings the other team scored 2 runs each, and the team ahead scored one run each…the end of the game, still 8 to 4…but Obama had a great last two innings, yep their fans are excited…until the final score is posted…

I think what people saw last night, in fact over all three debates, is that Romney is a serious man, who is measured in his analysis and calm in demeanor.

He is not a “cowboy” of the shoot from the hip variety, but a steady point man.

I too wanted to see Obama knocked around. It would be great because we are sick of this petty, mean little boy king. But, Romney has proven himself to be a genuinely decent man whose drive is strong, but who none the less is happy to win without crushing his opponent.

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. I knew that you were a Truther.

The President is Commander in Chief as long as the US has a standing military. The US has a standing military all the time – therefore the President is the Commander in Chief.

Furthermore, the President has the ability to order the military to do almost anything. Congressional budgetary and declarations can be back-filled.

For example, the President can order the military to prepare for war. That would be a legal order. In fact, the President order troops and assets into position for war. He can THEN get congress to declare war.

You, being the idiot that you are, claimed that the President is ONLY the CINC during wartime and that he can only order the military to do anything if Congress “first” authorize it.

Here was your exact quote:

he’s . . . only C in C during wartime, and can only order the military to do anything if Congress first authorizes it.

Romney’s argument amounted to “I will do as he said, just better.” Seriously, Romney basically said he would have done nothing different than Obama. That is NOT leadership.

Faramir on October 23, 2012 at 1:44 AM
I agree: Mitt Romney didn’t warmonger enough to hand the election momentum back to Barry. Damn that Mitt Romney for not walking out on stage with a combat knife between his teeth! And where was the flight suit and “mission accomplished” banner in background? Mitt promised us he would wear the flight suit. :-(

It was a total leadership fail for Mr. Romney. He was supposed to take that brush President Barry handed him and paint himself, on live television, as George Dubya Cheney for all the world to see. :-(

Punchenko on October 23, 2012 at 2:20 AM

Respectfully, Reagan debated on ideology. Mitt came off as well, Mitt, in the wind, with no ideology whatsoever.

Romney’s argument amounted to “I will do as he said, just better.” Seriously, Romney basically said he would have done nothing different than Obama. That is NOT leadership.

Faramir on October 23, 2012 at 1:44 AM
I agree: Mitt Romney didn’t warmonger enough to hand the election momentum back to Barry. Damn that Mitt Romney for not walking out on stage with a combat knife between his teeth! And where was the flight suit and “mission accomplished” banner in background? Mitt promised us he would wear the flight suit. :-(

It was a total leadership fail for Mr. Romney. He was supposed to take that brush President Barry handed him and paint himself, on live television, as George Dubya Cheney for all the world to see. :-(

Shut down and consolidate bases in the US. Most of them are only open for the benefit of powerful Congressmen for their districts. Mobilize special forces units to seek and destroy Al Queda where it resides in Middle East. Cut the regular forces to about 100,000.

I am so glad Obama knows what an aircraft carrier is and let us all hope he will never have one with his name on the back of it.
He should not even have a Jack In the Box named in his honor.
And yes that was a personal insult but true never the less….
My 5 year old is more presidential..
Tilly on October 23, 2012 at 9:33 AM